العربيةSeason2025/262026 · this seasonAll seasons
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Player reportSerie A 2026

Sebastiano Esposito

Sassuolo
False 9 (dropping forward) ST
average position x=54 — drops deep · 2.14 key passes/90
strikerfalse 9box threatfinishing
336
minutes
6 apps
2
goals
0.40 xG
0.4
xG
5 shots
5
shots
0.08 xG/shot
3
box entries
0.80/90
8
key passes
2.14/90
9
dribbles
22% won
81%
pass completion
172 passes
Overview

The player

Who he is and how he compares with his peers.

Thin sample this season. Sebastiano Esposito has played 6 matches (336 min) so far, so sections that need a bigger sample to say anything reliable are not shown here — they are missing on purpose, not broken. See all seasons combined →
01

What Patterns Define Him?

His repeatable signature. A step only appears if its reliability score (sample size × match coverage) reaches at least Medium confidence — pattern mining, not anecdotes.

RECEIVE / MOVE
occupy the box, drop or run channel — mostly in the middle third (63% of his 172 passes)
0.80 box entries/90 · 3× in 2/6 matches
↓
LINK
lay-off and combine
8 key passes · 81% completion · 172× in 6/6 matches
↓
FINISH
shoot from central zones
0.40 xG · 5× in 3/6 matches
Signature: Receive / Move → Link → Finish — the only steps proven repeatable this season (3 of 4 in the full pattern). Not enough evidence yet for the rest of the chain below.
Not a pattern: convert — 2× (low confidence, shown as a number only, no tactical conclusion drawn) — omitted from the signature rather than presented as one.
19

Where is he influential — vs where is he merely present?

Red fill = raw touch territory. Gold rings = zones where his influence (xT added, progression, line-breaks, key passes) outweighs how often he's actually there — one combined map instead of two separate maps to compare by eye. Red with no ring: present but not dangerous. A ring on faint red: rare touches, outsized impact.

own goal left, attacking →
29
passes / match
1.8
dribbles / match
9–40
pass range (matches)
1–3
dribble range (matches)
Pass range = his fewest and most passes in any single match this season (9 at the low end, 40 at the high) — a measure of match-to-match involvement, not pass distance. Dribble range works the same way, for dribbles/carries per match.
In possession

In possession

What he does with the ball: build-up, progression, creation, carrying and finishing.

09

How dangerous are his carries?

Real ball-carries

31 tracked carries (8.3/90, 9 progressive, 391m total) — the ball moving with his touches, a different signal from dribbles below (beating an opponent 1v1). this counts every touch-carry, not just his dribble attempts below — a fuller picture of how much of his ball-carrying is control-and-move rather than beating a man.

10%6%13%6%3%3%13%6%6%6%19%3%3%
progressivelateral/short% of his 31 carries originating in each zone · own goal left, attacking →
Every carry, exact path — median 7m, longest 42m
By zone — where the carry started → where it ended
3Outside → Inside
18Inside → Inside
9Outside → Outside
1Inside → Outside
First (16)Second (15)grouped by carry pattern (start + end position), largest group first
startendown goal left, attacking →

Dribbles (1v1s)

Does he drop to link or stay central? Touches by channel. Season rate: 2.41 dribbles attempted /90.

brighter band = more dribbles · own goal left, attacking →
INSIDE 78%
OUTSIDE 22%
Dribble location — 7 inside · 2 outside
Right Wing
0 · 0%
Right Half-Space
6 · 67%
Central
0 · 0%
Left Half-Space
1 · 11%
Left Wing
2 · 22%
Vision AI His touches are central and high — a penalty-box striker.
14

How does he build & move the ball?

How he moves the ball — his 4 busiest progression routes, not where every pass starts and ends separately. Arrow width = how often, colour = xT gained, dashed = switch of play. The full breakdown is in the lane matrix below.

own goal left, attacking →
Lane transition matrix — when he receives in a lane, where does it go?
TO →RWRHSCLHSLWRW2259%1336%85%1RHS2528%756%1416%4C4511%520%949%2211%59%4LHS303%123%723%750%15LW1811%233%656%10FROM
Rows normalised: each row sums to 100% of that lane's completed passes. Grey number = passes from that lane.

Primary route: the right wing in the final third → the right half-space in the final third — 3 progressive passes (15% of his progression) at 0.078 xT each. He moves it inside.

His progression is inward: 60% of progressive passes move the ball toward the middle versus 10% going wider — he cuts in rather than holding width.

Only 8% of his passes switch play, so his threat is same-side — contain the flank he occupies and the route closes.

Quality behind the volume: 9 line-breaking passes and 17 final-third entries, 1.4 total xT added.

Origin and destination are measured on the same event row — no receiver inference. Receiver identity is not recoverable from this data source.
All passes — origin zone share
Filter: from to
6%9%9%7%2%5%13%11%3%1%1%2%12%10%7%3%
completedincomplete172 passes · any zone → any zone · own goal left, attacking →
172
passes
81%
completed
32
lost
Vision AIIn line with his 81% season completion rate.
12

How does he progress play?

How much he drives the ball forward. Progressive = completed pass advancing ≥15 toward goal.

17
progressive · 4.6/90
17
final-third entries · 4.6/90
3
box entries · 0.80/90
18
progression index /90
Progression index: one composite number — progressive passes + progressive carries + 2% of total distance progressed + 8× positive xT added, all per 90. Weights VOLUME and THREAT together rather than counting progressive actions alone.
03

How does he create chances?

8 key passes (2.14/90), 0 of them assists — where his chance creation specifically comes from, 18 zones (6×3), showing his share of key passes originating there.

Chance creation — key pass origin zone share
Filter:
25%38%12%25%
chance creation (8)assist (0)% of the selected group's key passes originating in each zone
Box deliveries — key passes reaching the final third, by flank
from the left (5)from the right (3)of 8 key passes landing in the final thirdattacking ↑ toward goal
06

Where does he become vulnerable?

39 possessions lost. Directness has a cost — the question is where. Attacking-third losses are cheap; deep ones are dangerous.

14
attacking third (cheap)
20
middle third
5
own third (dangerous)
Vision AI 36% of losses are in the attacking third — a notable share happen deeper, which invites transitions.
Mistake danger (proxy): 3.23 danger-index/90 · 0.309 avg/turnover. Weights each loss by threat conceded at that location. True xT-conceded needs the opponent possession model; positional proxy.
10

What is his passing profile?

172
passes attempted
48%
mostly sideways
61%
mostly short
Direction
Forward
57 · 33%
Sideways
83 · 48%
Backward
32 · 19%
Length (completed)
Short (<15m)
85 · 61%
Medium
47 · 34%
Long (>30m)
8 · 6%
13

Preferred Progression Routes — xT-weighted

His progressive passes as zone→zone routes, weighted by expected threat (xT) added — arrow width and the number are the total xT generated on each route, not just how often he plays it. This is where he actually moves the needle.

0.250.220.190.180.170.16
own goal left, attacking →
Highest-value routes (xT)
0.25
Central Att third → Central Att third
1 passes · 1 to a shot
0.22
Central Mid third → Right Half-Space Att third
2 passes
0.19
Left Half-Space Mid third → Central Mid third
2 passes
0.18
Left Wing Mid third → Left Wing Att third
1 passes · 1 to a shot
0.17
Right Wing Mid third → Right Wing Att third
1 passes
0.16
Left Half-Space Mid third → Central Att third
1 passes
07

Where Does He Receive?

The zones where Sebastiano Esposito gets on the ball — his top three ball-collection areas highlighted (gold = primary). Reception is proxied by where his on-ball actions begin (no explicit receiver is recorded).

123
1 = primary, 2 = secondary, 3 = third · own goal left, attacking →
His collection zones
20%
Primary
Central, Middle third
13%
Secondary
Left Half-Space, Middle third
10%
Third
Left Wing, Middle third
These are the zones where he collected the ball most.
08

Where Does He Operate? — Every Zone

Every on-ball touch (pass, dribble, shot) binned into a 6×3 grid — raw counts of where Sebastiano Esposito actually gets on the ball. Hover any zone for its breakdown by action type, its share of all touches, and the exact coordinate range it covers.

Filter:
1322171369232073101715137
own goal left, attacking → · brighter + higher number = more touches

Passes only — completed vs incomplete, by zone

Same zone grid, restricted to passes so completed/incomplete and match filters actually mean something — a shot or a dribble has no "completed" in the pass sense.

6%9%9%7%2%5%13%11%3%1%1%2%12%10%7%3%
own goal left, attacking →
11

Every Pass This Season — completed vs incomplete

Every pass this season, plotted individually — green = completed, grey (dashed) = incomplete, gold = key pass. Filter by outcome or isolate one match below.

8Key pass
1Cross
1Cutback
17Progressive
11Long ball
6Switch
By zone — where the pass started → where it landed
16Outside → Inside
69Inside → Inside
24Outside → Outside
31Inside → Outside
By direction
57Forward
32Backward
83Sideways
own goal left, attacking →
02

Tactical patterns — how his football actually looks

Three clustered sequence diagrams from his own event data — his three busiest routes: the way he progresses, the pattern behind his chances, and where a turnover turns dangerous.

own goal left, attacking →
How does he progress the ball forward?
His most common route for progressing play: he plays straight through the central in the final third — 1 passes worth 0.25 xT.
Where do his chances come from?
Of 8 key passes, his busiest route is a delivery where he plays inside from the right wing toward the right hs in the final third — 2 times. The receiver isn't identifiable in this data, only where the pass started and ended.
Where does he lose the ball most?
This is a RATE, not a raw count — the share of his touches in each zone that end in a turnover, so a zone he simply plays in more often doesn't automatically look riskier. His weakest zone is the left wing in the final third: 44% of his 9 touches there are lost (4 times).
—5 touches · too few—6 touches · too few0%0/8 lost—2 touches · too few—2 touches · too few24%4/17 lost7%1/14 lost11%4/37 lost8%2/24 lost35%6/17 lost—7 touches · too few10%1/10 lost—4 touches · too few40%4/10 lost44%4/9 lostRWRHSCLHSLWDEFMIDATT
04

Does he carry inside or outside — his ball-carries across the pitch

Four arrows, one per movement class of his ball-carries: outside→inside (cutting in with the ball), inside→outside (carrying wide), outside→outside (down the touchline) and inside→inside (through the middle). Each count is measured from the carry's real start and end coordinates.

own goal left, attacking →
Across 31 ball-carries, his dominant tendency is that he carries through central areas (58%). He carries from outside into the middle 3 times and out toward the touchline 1 — a genuine inside forward who cuts in with the ball.
05

What happens right after he carries the ball

Every carry's end point matched against his own very next pass or shot in the same match, when one starts almost exactly there — the direct continuation of that touch, not a separate stat. “No clean link” means no pass or shot of his own started close enough to count (often the carry ended in a tackle or a loss); it isn't a claim about exactly what happened, only that nothing traceable followed.

Shot
0 · 0%
Progressive / key pass
4 · 13%
Simple pass
22 · 71%
No clean link
5 · 16%
Of 31 carries, 0% flow straight into a shot of his own, 13% into a key or progressive pass — a genuine end product to the carry, not just ball retention. 16% have no clean link to a next touch of his own close to where the carry ended.
Out of possession

Out of possession

Where and how he defends and presses.

16

How & where does he defend?

44 defensive actions across the season (11.8/90). Where he wins the ball, and how — the core question for a defender. Aerial duels are not recorded for this competition, so aerial dominance is not measured here.

click a card to isolate that action type · own goal left, attacking →
6
tackles · 33% won
2
interceptions · 0.5/90
13
recoveries · 3.5/90
1
clearances · 0.3/90
2
blocks
43
avg action height
7
won high (att 3rd)
23
middle third
14
own third
Vision AI A mid-block defender. He wins the ball mainly by stepping in — tackles, interceptions & recoveries outweigh clearances. 21 proactive ball-wins (5.6/90), tackle success 33%. He defends high, stepping out to intercept — suits a high line.

Defensive work in the attacking half

Ball-wins in the attacking half only (own half vs. attacking half, a simple 2-way split, not the usual thirds) — the clearest single signal of how much he presses and recovers the ball high up the pitch.

13
attacking-half actions · 3.48/90
15

Against Different Pressing Intensities

Split by how hard the opponent pressed (opponent PPDA — lower = more intense press). Does Sebastiano Esposito keep producing when the game is tight and the press is high? Tiers of ~2-2 matches — directional evidence, not proof.

press tier
xT /90
prog /90
key P /90
dribble%
High press (PPDA 4.7, 2m)
1.31
7.2
1.20
0%
Mid press (PPDA 6.1, 2m)
1.07
3.5
3.52
0%
Low press (PPDA 7.0, 2m)
0.76
4.1
1.35
50%
Team

Team context

How much of the team runs through him, and what changes without him.

17

Impact on the Team

Sassuolo's output per match with Sebastiano Esposito (6 matches) versus without him (3 matches). Insufficient evidence — the without-sample is only 3 matches; treat every Δ below as noise until more games exist. A proper on-off model needs many more minutes.

WITH (6)
WITHOUT (3)
Δ
goals for /match
1.50
1.67
-0.17
xG for /match
0.97
0.42
+0.55
goals against /match
2.83
1.67
+1.17
points /match
0.67
1.33
-0.67
18

His Share of the Team

Of everything Sassuolo produced this season, the categories where the biggest share ran through Sebastiano Esposito specifically — his share of the team total, not a per-90 rate.

category
share
him / team
goals
20%
2 / 10
box entries
14%
83 / 575
expected assists (xA)
13%
5.3 / 39.2
Recruitment

Style and verdict

Style profile, closest comparables, and the summary.

20

Playing-Style Profile

Not raw event counts — football style scores: weighted models scored 0–100 against the 299 strikers in the pool (min 450 min). This is what separates players who post similar numbers but play differently. Proxy dimensions are inferred from on-ball data; true off-ball running / under-pressure context is not measured.

False 979%Pressing forward75%Transition runner66%Target man53%
Why False 9 79%: a weighted blend of creativity 88 (weight 30%) + build-up 81 (weight 25%) + progression 97 (weight 20%) + box threat 32 (weight 25%). The score reflects how distinctively his profile SHAPE matches this archetype vs his peers.
Elite
line-breaking, through-balls, final-third threat, ball-winning, progression, passing directness, territory (wide vs central), transition, creativity
Strong
receiving zones, build-up, carrying, crossing
Average
retention, press resistance, defensive aggression, dribbling
Weak
box threat
Unknown
aerial ability, marking, off-ball running — not in event data
Line-breaking
100
Through-balls ~proxy
99
Final-third threat
98
Ball-winning
97
Progression
97
Passing directness
96
Territory (wide vs central)
96
Transition ~proxy
92
Creativity
88
Receiving zones
82
Build-up
81
Carrying
78
Crossing
73
Retention
46
Press resistance ~proxy
43
Defensive aggression
41
Dribbling
40
Box threat
32
21

Similar Players — in style space

Closest comparables measured on the style scores above, within the same position family — so it separates how players are alike, not just how much they touch the ball. Each line explains the shared strength and the divergent mechanism. A light physical-profile term (height / weight; this player: 183 cm / 76 kg) is included at a quarter of one style axis's weight — enough to break ties between stylistic twins, not to override style. Scope: pooled across the Serie A, Bundesliga, La Liga, Ligue 1 and Premier League, percentiled within each player's own league before comparing — a match from another league is marked with its league name.

Style, not quality: a high match here means two players tend to produce the ball in similar ways — it is not a ranking, a scouting recommendation, or a claim that they are equally good.

Franco Vázquez Cremonese 25/26 · 187 cm / 82 kg
94%
Driven by: ball-winning (14%), transition (13%), final-third threat (10%). Different mechanism — Esposito more via receiving zones; Vázquez more via dribbling, press resistance.
Alexis Sánchez Sevilla · La Liga 25/26 · 169 cm / 62 kg
93%
Driven by: ball-winning (12%), final-third threat (9%), creativity (9%). Different mechanism — Esposito more via carrying.
Jack Harrison Leeds 25/26 · 175 cm / 70 kg
93%
Driven by: transition (11%), progression (10%), ball-winning (10%). Different mechanism — Esposito more via passing directness.
Georginio Rutter Brighton · Premier League · 182 cm / 83 kg
89%
Driven by: transition (15%), ball-winning (13%), final-third threat (11%). Different mechanism — Esposito more via territory (wide vs central), build-up; Rutter more via dribbling.
Antoine Griezmann Atletico · La Liga 25/26 · 176 cm / 73 kg
89%
Driven by: transition (12%), final-third threat (11%), creativity (10%). Different mechanism — Esposito more via territory (wide vs central), ball-winning; Griezmann more via box threat, retention.
Herba Guirassy Nantes · Ligue 1 25/26 · 177 cm / 66 kg
87%
Driven by: transition (14%), ball-winning (13%), progression (11%). Different mechanism — Esposito more via retention, receiving zones.
22

Summary

Sebastiano Esposito is a false 9 / pressing forward: 2 goals from 0.40 xG (+1.60 vs expected), 5 shots, 3 box entries. A clinical finisher. [Off-ball runs, aerials and hold-up under contact need tracking/aerial data.]

Based on 6 matches (336 minutes) — an early read, treat with caution until more minutes are logged. He profiles as a false 9 / pressing forward — best used in a system built around that identity. His biggest room for growth is box threat — even a modest improvement there would meaningfully lift his overall false 9 profile.
✨ This report is interactive

Click any stat card to filter its map, hover a dot for the exact match, and use the dropdowns to slice passes zone-to-zone. Nothing here is static.

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